Before and after

If you haven't had enough already here i go again talking dirty again!  Compost that is, i love that dadgum dirt!  Here is a little before and after photo for your perusal.   I am currently building the pile in the middle layer by layer. Its's about hip high now so iv'e placed some downed limbs on top to add a little air space and i will just keep on layering till it's about double in size.  The left pile gets most of the kitchen scraps to feed those precious earthworms, this pile will be ready for next spring applications.   The far right one i have been using all summer to mulch gardens and feed that middle pile when needed. 

Oh, that chair?

 Well the chair is the most important element.  Nothing like sitting there watering the compost piles for a completely mindless moment, er, i mean hour.  

Did i tell you i was queen of the hill? 

Okay, it's a compost hill, but me and my pitchfork are ready to defend against all foes uh huh.  This is a before picture taken last summer of the pile that is almost gone in the previous photo.  You can be queen too!

blessings!

bfitz

How Sweet it Is!

HOW SWEET IT IS!

A VOLUNTEER BEEHIVE!

Hub decides he is through with beekeeping, too many stings, but a MIghty Queen and her troops have discovered an old hive we had up in our barn loft.   Even the Hub is loving this, so he moved the hive close to the loft door to make it a little easier for the girls and allow us to do lofty things without upsetting the hive.  And ooooooooh how we love the honey, lotsa of flowering woodsy plants, plenty of blackberry, the honey is so rich and fruity mmmm..........

Did I mention Tea?

Hub salivates at the thoughts of homemade bread with honey,  cornbread with honey,  biscuits with honey,  yogurt with honey, coffee with honey,  and honey with, well, just honey.  Whats a few stings, huh?  Do I need to talk childbirth again!?  Look there are rewards for the pain!   Hub, keep thinkin about that delicious dark golden honey, that's it, mmmm....... okay then how about a little honey for my tea. Yes, indeed.  Here is some raspberry leaf i dried, a pinch of this is good for us girls, "why?"  Oh just google it K?  Some how I am a girlfriend to myself when I throw a pinch into the teapot

In my little teapot short and stout, I am enjoying 2 pinches white tea leaf, 1 pinch red raspberry leaf, and a 1/2 pinch licorice root (to sweeten) till the honey flows God willing. 

From my cottage porch, good day, and God's richest blessings!

Love,

bfitz

Look Up ( and praise God from whom all blessings flow!)

Time has just flown by.  Seems there is so much to do before the real cold weather and rain begin in earnest.  We are experiencing some beautiful Autumn days and I am truly taking advantage of it.  The vegetable garden bed is pretty much cleaned up, something I wouldn't necessarily recommend for those who do not have a compost pile that would benefit from the debris. Letting the bio mass just decompose in place will act as a mulch and weed suppressant that ultimately becomes chow for the soil organisms, uppening the earth in their own marvelous way

I have a compost pile treasure! and I am not talking about my favorite paring knife I retrieved a year after I had mistakenly thought I misplaced it.   Hearing a ting from the pitch fork I was using on the pile I was esctatic to find my trusty paring knife ( as only those of you who own only one truly good one would know.)  I had inadvertantly tossed it into my food scrap bucket with potato peelings I had peeled onto some newspaper.  Just wrapped it all up and tossed it into the bucket!  Alas the trusty knife has been restored to it's rightful place and all is well in my world.  But, back to the treasure.  I plucked from the vicinity of where lasts years compost pile was a knobby, large, pear shaped gourd with a nice curling stem.  What a nice FREE decoration for the thanksgiving table.  Mind you I did not plant this but obviously I must have thrown out a decorative gourd the previous fall and I was rewarded.  Usually these carry overs are not exact replicas of the former so it is always a nice surprise to see a step back from the version I bought. 

In all this Autumn busyness I hope we all take time to pause and Look Up, and thank God for all his provision, and  the beauty that surrounds us.  I know that in my neck of the woods I tend to forget just how amazing God's green earth is, from the old 100 ft. Douglas Firs that surround our cottage to the microscopic organisms of the  soil food web, the Creator has made them all.  Enjoy this poem written by my sister-in-law Paulette as she was inspired on her last visit. Blessings B.

The Sentinel

By Paulette Erickson

The old pine treee stands like a sentinel.

Tall, but weighted down with age.

Robed in a worn mossy coat.

Tattered shreds hang like an old boa.

The arms sag and long fingers droop,

Too tired to hold up under their weight.

The shourlders are stooped with the years of burdens

They have had to carry.

 Still, it is a wonder to behold.

Standing guard over this little patch of earth.

It shelters many within its embrace,

 The birds that nest in its leafy hair.

The flowers that bloom at its feet.

The squirrels that store their harvest.

And me, resting in its shadow.

I know I can dwell here for a space of time

And be comforted from daily worries.

The sentinel will watch and protect me.

My mind can drift and wander where it will.

Serentiy surrounds me and I am one with the tree.

We commune and I feel at home.

It shares its' secrets, and I tell it mine.

It teaches endurance and steadfastness.

Despite its age and shabby garments.

Grace and dignity shine through.

The old sentinel has weathered the years

With strength, beauty and peace.

I will cherish this time and savor the feelings,

And remember my gnarled companion

And what I learned from him.

Straw Bale Garden

We have been cleaning up our vegetable garden bit by bit.  Of course all of this green debris will enrich the compost pile immensely.  We used about 8 three string bales of straw to make tiers on the little slope of our vegetable bed.  It worked out great!  We  put the bales in place last fall and the winter rain sprouted remnant wheat grains, I pulled these out easily, letting some mature a bit so I could pick them and put them in a little vase.  In Spring we dug a little hole in the center of each bale, and planted nasturiums thinking this would make a lovely display and it worked beautifully.   I think we may get one more growing season out of these bales before they completely decompose hastening another uppening stage in the garden.  An elderly couple that lives across the creek, up a gravel hill and tucked into a very serene wooded abode blessed us with some canned fruit juices, peaches, tomatoes and plums today.  How wonderful to have these home preserved goodies, and to have neighbors such as these wonderful folk! 

soil fertility

Okay so soil fertility as an entry is just another attempt to talk about compost, kinda, sorta.  Bear with me, I'm sure to get past this phase sooner or later.  There have been some good articles of late in the Capitol Press, our regional agricultural newspaper.  One article titled " Soil fertility aids in battle against global warming"  was really interesting.  Angela Black quotes from Australian Allan Yeomans book "Priority One"  Mr. Yeoman is knowledgeable on farming practices and the degradation of our farmland soil.  He states that soil has a very significant role in climate change.  The breakdown of soil organic matter ultimately releases carbon in the atmosphere in the form of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.  He goes on to say that the release of cabon dioxide from the destruction of the world's farmed soils is similar in quantitiy to all that released from the burning of fossils fuels!  The farming practices of monocropping, inversion tilling and agricultural chemicals have led to soil infertility ( a loss of soil life).  Remedies are addressed, ways to reverse the damaging trend and ideas that educate you and get you thinking.  I think this book would be great reading for the homesteader at heart.  More of Yeomans' refreshing ideas can be found on at his website.  I think you can download the entire book free from this site.  I am really encouraged to continue to compost and uppen our little patch of earth God has so richly blessed us with, I hope you will too.

 In Oregon, if you want more sun, you grow it!

blackberries

Composting Revisited

i'm so happy to hear that some of you were inspired to begin composting to create your own nutrient rich soil, uppening the earth and improving the soil food web.  In my prior composting blog I realized that there might be questions how to contain all the makings.  My pile is usually quite large, but when a full year has passed you will be amazed how much it has reduced in size.  I create 3 bays using 12 bales of straw.  I can rotate between the three, using some compost from a completed pile to boost one in process of layering.  The straw bales usually last a couple of years even with all our rain, the twine keeps it all neatly intact. When a bale starts to decompose, I will remove the twine, feed the straw back into the pile or use as a wonderful mulch for the garden.  I will then replace a new straw bale in the bay.  Works great for me. I know alot of folks build wood  and or wire framed compost bins and there are plastic barrel types on the market as well.  It just seems the straw bales have the extra bonus of being a soil builder themselves. I'm sure other random thoughts of composting will pop into my head.  I haven't heard anyone say "Enough already!!! 

Composting

Let's talk compost!  The compost pile above has a cloud of steam drifting away from it.  Upon waking in the morning, my husband stares out our bedroom window as usual for a few moments.  He was questioning where these little clouds were coming from that just sorta puffed into the air repeatedly.  I was curious now, and got up to see.  The pile was obscured from our view so it took me a moment to realize where it was coming from. Then it hit me, the compost pile was hard at work making next years rich soil for the garden.  Now that's bliss folks!  Composting is really a neccessity for us. We have manured bedding from the barn that needs to be disposed of, as well as garden debris, and of course kitchen wastes.  If we moved to the city tomorrow, I would still probably compost rather than pay the garbage service to haul away the components that most yards posess to create such a beneficial resource.  I think with a little education, everyone could learn ways to "uppen" the earth rather than take away from it.  Our preferred composting method is referred to as cool composting or lazy as some call it.  You pile everything in layers and wait usually a full year or more before you can use it, as opposed to occasionally turning the pile allowing an influx of oxygen to keep it processing hotter and quicker.  Hot composting has the benefit of killing unwanted pathogens, however cool composting contains a greater diversity of soil organisms better able to eliminate pathogens in the long run.  Scrutinizing what goes in to the compost will best determine the quality of the results too. In other words nothing "yucky".  I have learned that Nitrogen and Carbon are the big boys responsible for a good composting project and what the ratios of these are will determine the final product.  Just remember nitrogen is GREEN as in grass clippings (the hottest), garden debris from weeding and trimming, etc. and carbon is BROWN as in autumn leaves, straw, sawdust, twigs, etc.  Manure from livestock would be considered a green, however it is not a necessary in the making of good compost. If you lack in green consider keeping a bag of alfalfa meal on hand.  If brown, well a neighbor usually has leaves to spare or consider picking up a bale of straw.  Layer these components with a few shovelfulls of soil inbetween to get the earthworms and other soil life going.  These creatures will love your kitchen scraps too.  Now sprinkle the pile with water to keep it moist but not soaking. Because I cool compost by fall my pile has cooled down considerably, so after making sure it is moist enough (the first few fall rains help with this), I cover it with black plastic to discourage any plant growth on my pile and then anchor it down with rocks or tree limbs to keep it from disappearing in the winter winds.   I will occasionally poke at it through out the winter months to see how it is doing.  If my compost isn't to my liking by spring, no problem, it will be soon enough.  As spring provides us with fodder for the new pile started, we will usually use scoops of this not quite done compost to innoculate our new pile with goodies from the soil food web.  In the end, if what you have is a crumbly, humusy, sweet smelling soil, congratulations, you did it!  If success inspires you further, I would recommend Teaming with Microbes, a book written by Jeff Lownfels and Wayne Lewis.  I am particularly interested in their instructions on creating powerful compost tea.  We'll let you know how that goes.  Happy composting!

Composting slows as a pile dries out.  Here our grandaughter Alissa is watering the pile in order to keep the composting process active. 

I think Alissa is glad that if she must be photagraphed watering the compost pile at least she can be stylin' in her pink hello kitty boots!